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John "Marmaduke" Dawson, who formed the New Riders of the Purple Sage with Jerry Garcia in 1969 and passed away on Wednesday after a long bout with stomach cancer. He was 64. The original New Riders of the Purple Sage consisted of Dawson, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and David Nelson. Garcia player pedal steel guitar.

After opening for the Dead in 1969 and 1970, Buddy Cage, Dave Tolbert and Spencer Dryden gradually replaced the Dead members, and NRPS took off on their own. Their self-titled debut with the sagauro cactus on the cover is among the greatest country-rock albums ever. All ten songs - from "I Don't Know You" to "Louisiana Lady" - are classics.

New Riders of the Purple Sage were part of the successful years of Americana music during the 1970's.

His Recordings of “Flying Saucers Rock and Roll” and “Red Hot” Helped Define the Genre

AUGUST 6, 2009

By Calvin Gilbert

Rockabilly pioneer Billy Lee Riley, a key figure at Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn., died Sunday (Aug. 2) in Jonesboro, Ark., at age 75 following a lengthy illness. He’s best known for his 1957 single, “Flying Saucers Rock and Roll,” and its follow-up “Red Hot.”

Although Riley never attained the mainstream success achieved by several of his contemporaries at Sam Phillips’ legendary record label, he was a major at Sun alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and others.

We are deeply saddened to report that on July 17, 2009, Gordon Waller went into cardiac arrest and was taken to the emergency room. Despite intensive efforts on his behalf by hospital personnel, Gordon passed away early the following morning. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

His partner of nearly five decades, Peter Asher, will be issuing a statement shortly. We hope you will join us sending love and condolences to his family.

NEW YORK (AP) — Frank McCourt, author of "Angela's Ashes," the Pulitzer Prize-winning "epic of woe" about his impoverished Irish childhood, died Sunday. He was 78

McCourt had been gravely ill with meningitis and recently was treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer and the cause of his death, said his publisher, Scribner. He died at a Manhattan hospice, his brother Malachy McCourt said.

Until his mid-60s, Frank McCourt was known primarily around New York as a creative writing teacher and as a local character — the kind who might turn up in a New York novel — singing songs and telling stories with his younger brother Malachy and otherwise joining the crowds at the White Horse Tavern and other literary hangouts.

Heinz Edelmann, a graphic designer best known for his work as art director of the 1968 Beatles film "Yellow Submarine," died last Tuesday at a hospital in Stuttgart, Germany, according to the city's State Academy of Art and Design. Edelmann was 75. No cause of death was given

Born in 1934 in Aussig in the former Czechoslovakia, Edelmann studied at the Dusseldorf Art Academy and became a freelance graphic designer in 1958

In addition to his work on "Yellow Submarine," Edelmann designed many book covers, including the first German edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings."